


please choose another her

by grandmas_ghost (nap_princess)



Series: fickle [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Bad Ending, F/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 08:42:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14712833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nap_princess/pseuds/grandmas_ghost
Summary: "Did you only fall in love with me because I looked like Sasuke?" Sai asks and Ino felt like she wanted to cry because that's such a cruel thing to ask– SaiIno but also not really, modern angst AU





	please choose another her

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [goodbye.](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/382484) by Em Harris. 



** please choose another her **

* * *

 You confuse me,  
Just say good-bye,  
Let me make it easier,  
Please choose another her,  
I hope you won't get hurt.

 – **Em Harriss** , _Goodbye_

* * *

"With the pay check I'm getting, maybe by the time I turn thirty, I'll starve myself in my sleep then you'll get to marry Sasuke." Sai says as he walks into their apartment.

Sai – Ino's fiancé.

It's late, they smell like alcohol and they're both not happy.

Ino Yamanaka holds her tongue because she doesn't want the whole hall to hear their fight. But as soon as the front door clicks shut, she whips around, pale blonde hair flying behind her. She could, if she wanted to, she could scream like a banshee.

Sai and Ino have just gotten back from having dinner with her parents and her close friends. A celebration dinner for finally finishing her education. Ino thought the small gathering was going fine until someone brought up how they had always figured Ino would end up marring Sasuke Uchiha.

She remembers how a round of laughs followed after that, but so did a trigger. Then the next thing Ino knew, everyone was agreeing and going, "Right? Right?" Even lazy Shikamaru Nara bothered to throw in a joke, and his humour was as dry as Suna's sand.

Ino blames the alcohol and her inability to say something. She just sat there with a tight-lipped smile. Sai looked he wanted to run away the entire time.

Sasuke Uchiha, a boy (now man) that Ino had chased after when she was ten then gave up when moving away for university. Seven years of chasing Sasuke, five years of radio silence while at pre-med then four years of being with Sai while she was in Med school.

She can't believe these **adults** were judging her for a decision she made when she was a child. She was now twenty-six! Ino trembles with rage. Everyone should know by now how she has a temper, not one that's as short as Sakura's, but _still_ , a temper. Ino still gets furious and she can fly off the handle too. She was human. She **can** afford to be angry.

When the door closes, her mouth opens.

"What?!" Ino says. But this is not a question, it's a warning. "Why would you say such a thing?! This isn't a joke!" She's yelling now. Her equally pale eyes glare at Sai. Blue against black.

"Why can't I, Ino?!" Sai asks, it's a little bitter. Or maybe Ino just doesn't want to admit he's _very_ bitter about it. Sai never gets mad, he's always so calm and smiley.

He's not using the nickname he gave her either. He's not calling her 'Beautiful'. Just her name. It's just him calling her by her name.

"All your friends and even your parents always tell me about it! Like I'm some – some second chance that got _lucky_?!" Now his own voice was rising. "Like I should know who I'm up against! Sasuke Uchiha; the talk of the town, the man every girl wants to be with, a son of a gun who graduated from the best university! Not only is he handsome, he's also intelligent and got a great future ahead of him! Mister Perfect! A heir to his family's wealthy business!"

Ino shrinks a little. She never knew how much knowledge Sai had about Sasuke. But at this very moment, it looked like Sai knew plenty enough.

Then Sai drops a bomb.

"Did you only fall in love with me because I looked like Sasuke?!" Sai asks and Ino felt like she wanted to cry because that's such a cruel thing to ask.

They had met when Sai was working part-time at _Starbucks_ and she had visited so many times that she became a regular. She needed caffeine to survive Med school and, he had seen her through hell with messy bed-head and smudged make-up and random mental break downs. How can he ask her such a thing? Did he really think she'd stay with him for such a petty thing? _Looks_? Sai thinks Ino stayed with him just because of his looks?!

"Of course not!" Ino shouts, her hands balled into fists.

"Then why else would you stay with me?!" Sai asks as if he thinks the resemblance between him and Sasuke is the only thing holding Ino to him. Like he can't see his worth.

'Because I love you,' Ino wants to say but doesn't. She stays quiet because she knows even Sai isn't as emotionless as he looks. She lets him rant.

"Look at me, Ino, **look at me**! I'm just some idiot who's starving his fiancée and himself because he can't get a stable job! I'm just some idiot who's struggling because he chose art school and got into student debt! I'm just some idiot who –"

"You're not an idiot!" She snaps at him. Angry because he's putting himself down.

It's now two AM, they're yelling at each other on the top of their voices. Sai thinks their neighbours must hate him. No, he knows they hate him. Just like how Ino is hating him right now.

"I am!" Sai looks her in the eye. "I couldn't even write my number on the right coffee cup!"

Ino's temper drops.

What? _What?_ On the right coffee cup? Then who … who was the phone number supposed to be for? Hard-headed, smart Sakura Haruno? My-six-pack-is-better-than-yours Tenten? Polite, ladylike Hinata Hyuuga? Snarky Temari?

His voice dropped low, "I didn't have the heart to tell you either. You looked so happy and you were so kind. Things just … things escalated after that and I fell in love with you but ..."

Sai pauses and looks at the floor that will never look clean and forever look dirty. Because the place he rented was cheap. Because that's all he can afford. Because Ino just graduated and even with all the encouragement and time she gave him, he _still_ isn't able to pull himself up from the spot he's put himself in. Sai glares at a broken tile, he can't bear to see the sight of Ino's lips trembling and her eyes swelling with tears.

"... now I think I shouldn't have."

Ino stills. So … so he wasn't happy with her? He was just ... he was just committing to his mistake.

Ino's heart breaks from that. Because she's so in love with him. So so so in love with him but he's falling out of it and he's regretting it. He's miserable.

.  
.  
.

She leaves the engagement ring on the kitchen counter on the way out.

* * *

**end**

**Author's Note:**

> – 27 October 2017


End file.
